The most radioactive burial ground in Chernobyl – Podlesny

The burial ground in Chernobyl Podlesny – The burial place of radioactive waste near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The “Podlesny” radioactive waste disposal site was built with the aim of reliable disposal and isolation of high-level waste from the environment, which were formed during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at Block 4 of the ChNPP. The burial ground under construction was built in very small lines – design, construction and commissioning were completed in late 1986.

Underground Burial Podlesny

The main tasks of the Underground Burial Podlesny

Created under the tasks that were being undertaken at that time on the industrial site of the Chernobyl NPP, the cemetery was decided to build not a short distance from the blown up block. Podlesny was placed one and a half kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at the site of the Podlesny farmstead. The location was chosen unsuccessfully because highly radioactive waste is stored practically on the shore of the reservoir (Pripyatsky Zaton) and only 1 km from the Pripyat River. The paddock is built practically in the floodplain of the river, which can lead to serious environmental problems in case of leakage of containers and concrete tanks ) with radioactive waste. Also there is a nearby treatment plant ChNPP and filtration fields. A kilometer away from Podlesny is the town of Pripyat.

Underground Burial Podlesny

Construction of the Underground Burial Podlesny

Underwood is a modular storage. This means that radioactive waste is placed in special reinforced concrete compartments, the thickness of the walls of which reaches several meters. In Podlesnoye, eight modules were provided, which were placed on a common, monolithic foundation slab. Four modules, in the design of the cemetery they are called “module type A”, have a thickness of reinforced concrete walls of 1.12 meters. The other four modules (module B) are designed for disposal of waste with activity up to 250 X-rays per hour, have a wall thickness of 2.4 meters.